Seven Deadly Sins
by NessieGG
Summary: For them, the only way of achieving grace is through sin. Sin 7: Pride. [Urahara x Yoruichi Shortfic Collection]
1. Secret

This series will be a group of short fics of the Urahara/Yoruichi pairing and may or may not be related. Personally, I think these two would be the best sinners. Hehehe.

Warning: Due to the nature of the fic, (and, well, due to the nature of Yoruichi and Urahara) some of these chapter may contain adult themes. This first chapter, for instance, is labeled **Mature** since it gets a bit on the limey side, but just in case, I will include a rating before each one.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

**Seven Deadly Sins: Lust**

"Secret"

By Nessie

Princesses are considered to be something pure and impossible to tarnish. They are to be fair and graceful, as delicate as a daisy petal and as quiet as the spring breeze.

Shihouin Yoruichi is none of these things, and she is ever so much more. A woman, she knows, could be as pure as she wants, but the power in their hands is nothing when compared to what she now holds. She leads a covert operations team and is the embodiment of the word _secret_. No one can touch her, no one can ruin her.

Unless, of course, she wants them to.

Urahara's smile is lazy as he follows her to the House of Shihouin, but he is incredibly alert when she catches his hand and pulls him to her side. "Impatient, then?" he asks.

The tones in his voice are quiet, even relaxed, but she knows him better than that. Yoruichi can feel the way his pulse is drumming – as wildly as though a Hollow has possessed him, and even darker thoughts are flashing through his mind. A cat-like grin spreads her lips, which gleam as she wets them.

"Only as much as you are," she whispers in his ear. The fingers interlocked with hers tighten, and her heart begins its own swift pace.

In the night's blackness, they speed over polished wood and through rooms until they reach hers. Yoruichi wonders if she did not have just a cup too much of sake at Shiba Kuukaku's house. Turning to Urahara, she wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him hard. It takes him a minute to respond with anything but a quick, deep inhale, and a low chuckle rumbles from her chest. "You're slow, Kisuke."

Her mouth flutters over hers and spurs him into action. His fingers dig into the leanness of her hips as he grips her and crushes her against him. Her long hair, nearly black in the darkness, brushes over his knuckles, and he walks her backward to the four-poster bed. They don't go down at first, and instead Urahara presses her against one of the smooth wooden poles and seals his mouth to the space between her collarbones.

Her arrogant smile soon falls as other feelings swamp her. Her fingernails scratch him as she rakes them through his pale hair, but he apparently doesn't mind. And it's she who begins the game of progress, efficiently stripping him of the black and white captain's uniform before he can so much as get a hold on her own clothes.

He does eventually get enough control to divest Yoruichi of her garments. Yoruichi laughs a deep, husky sound, as they fall back together, bouncing when they hit mattress. The laughter soon transforms into desperate moans though when he begins his work.

Who would have ever thought the nerdy researcher Urahara Kisuke would be the one to "find out" the secret known as Shihouin Yoruichi.

* * *

He wakes the following morning with the scent of her fogging his senses, and there is still a moon in the sky. There also seem to be two suns, but Urahara realizes soon enough that the suns are really her large, golden eyes that sparkle as they stare at him from behind strands of violet.

There is silence between them, an unspoken conversation that says hundreds of things – things that are forbidden, things that are so painfully true that they might as well be lies – but it lasts only a minute. Then Yoruichi is sitting up and stretching in her cat-like fashion, back arching, fingers reaching, legs curling. Urahara can feel something stirring within him again, and he reaches out to brush tangled, thick hair away from a perfect shoulder, and then replaces his fingers with his lips.

Yoruichi mumbles something inaudible, and he smiles. "Sometimes slow is good," he tells her, coal-dark eyes sparkling mischievously.

"Mmm…" Yoruichi turns in his arms and revels in the languid way he kisses her, fingers stroking across her neck almost absently. A simmer begins, a fire in its first stages, but they part before they can be enflamed. "This could be trouble."

He pulls her back to the bed, and she grins down at him. "I can keep a secret," Urahara promises.

**The End**


	2. Thief

Rated: K+ for some suggestiveness.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

**Seven Deadly Sins: Gluttony**

"Thief"

By Nessie

"I honestly don't know why you insist on coming over here," Urahara began, his voice as relaxed-sounding as ever…with perhaps a tinge of annoyance, "when you could simply eat all you want at your _palace_."

"Mmm." Yoruichi refrained from answering for several moments while she filled her mouth with a drumstick that was swiftly devoured before she reached for a cup of milk that he had poured her. "The palace doesn't serve anything that has more than fifty calories in it," she told him as she delighted in a bunch of grapes with gusto. "And they _never _give me milk anymore. I'm starving!"

"Do you always eat like that?"

She turned an accusing golden glare on him as she swallowed. "I admit I seem like the last person who would be a glutton, but you don't have to say it like that… You never minded when we were kids."

"That's because when I asked, I was told it was because you were a growing girl and that girls ate more than boys. Being a scientist, I can tell right now that you are well past finished needing that much nourishment." Urahara sighed and sat down at his rickety table across from her. "But it can't be helped. I have a Captains Meeting in the morning—"

"I won't keep you up," she promised. "Go ahead and go to bed if you want, Kisuke." She paused in order to flash him a wicked grin. "Maybe I'll join you later."

Something stirred inside of him at her words, but Urahara forced it back in favor of eyeing her suspiciously. "I'm not worried about that. I'd just like to be able to have some breakfast if it's alright with you."

"But cereal goes so well with milk…"

"Yoruichi." He gave her a warning look.

She held her hands in the air and shrugged. "Fine. _Be _that way."

"I will." He stood up again and headed out of his tiny kitchen toward his even smaller bedroom. "Besides," her longtime friend added over his shoulder, a joke in his voice, "You'll get fat if you keep eating like that, and then see if I—"

He was promptly cut off by an empty milk bottle flying at his head. Urahara ducked just in time, but he turned around to send the covert ops commander an incredulous look. "How could you _do _that!" he demanded, his voice cracking.

A small vein was protruding out of Yoruichi's head, a far cry from her usually cool behavior, and she harrumphed at him. "Who doesn't care now?" she taunted, walking over and preparing to step over his body on her way out.

With a laugh, Urahara grabbed her ankle and gave a hard tug. Yoruichi went down, but her skills had her landing on her hands and her one free foot, and she never impacted with the floor. "You're gonna get it," she threatened, but a wide smile had already spread on her face.

"That's what I'm counting on," Urahara assured her, and then pulled her beneath him.

She accepted the kiss with grace and a racing heart, but she pushed him away enough to send him a wary glance. "Does it really bother you that I eat a lot, Kisuke?"

He shrugged. Wasn't it clear that her eating habits were not his direct concern at the moment? "No," he answered with a smirk.

"Oh, good." Yoruichi returned the same look with equal amusement. Getting up together, they entered his bedroom, and Urahara turned to face her.

"Why?" he inquired. "Out of curiosity."

"Because I already ate all of your breakfast food."

"You—!"

Yoruichi slammed the bedroom door shut behind her right before she pounced.

**The End**


	3. Rebel

A/N: Darker this time. Rated **K+ **for some violence.

**Seven Deadly Sins: Greed**

"Rebel"

By Nessie

The sky of Soul Society is fiery red with the impending fall of night, and there is a warm, heady scent in the air. Yoruichi wonders if it is from her…from her will to draw blood, should it be necessary. An aura, thick and ready, surrounds her. It must be a combination of her strength and Urahara's as they stand together in front of the massive gate to the living world. They face what they once considered to be their home, while their backs are aimed at Kisuke's destination…the land of mortals.

Yoruichi isn't sure how she feels about this. 'Exile' is a word that has never meant much to her. After all, she is the black sheep in her family, and she has been slowly exiling herself for years. Maybe this is the final trick to complete the process. In that case, she is comfortable.

Ukitake is the one to catch first sight of them by the gate. The hunt has been going on for nearly an hour, ever since that amateur researcher Mayuri found the records of Urahara's latest invention: the gigai that is going to have them driven out of Soul Society. Ukitake's expression is somewhat sad, and the petite girl that stands with him is wide-eyed and a little tense.

The Shihouin princess feels her mouth curve upward in a smile filled with ironic amusement. "Is that her?" she asked the tall captain of the 12th Division that stands beside her.

"Yes," Urahara replied, a singular excitement heightening his tone somewhat. "That's her. Clever, aren't I?"

More Shinigami appear, and Yoruichi realizes that it is time to prepare. She raises her hands, her greatest weapons, and takes a stance. She is a leader, just like him, and she has the ability to protect. More importantly, she has the motive to protect. It is true that she does not completely understand what Urahara's goals are, but somehow…that never mattered to her.

"Don't." His voice, combined with the warm hand he sets on her shoulder has her turning to him in a flurry of purple hair and amber eyes. Urahara is smiling, and it is the same smile he always wears; lazy, anything but concerned. "Don't fight them, Yoruichi."

Her eyes widen to discs of gold, and she shoots a bitter glance at the ranks of Shinigami watching them from a fair distance away. Ukitake…Byakuya…even Shunsui…all of them could be commendable adversaries, and she goes up on tiptoe, arching her spine like a cat that has been threatened. "Kisuke, if I don't…"

"I'm going to open the gate." She looks at him, and his eyes are filled with something she does not know the name of. She wishes she knew what was going on in his head. His smile widens as he speaks. "You can still save yourself. Betray me now, and you will still have your House and your rank and your position in this spineless Society of ours."

Yoruichi is shocked, not by the notion, but by the fact that he is actually taking time to still consider her through all of this. She had not expected it from him.

"You'll even still have me," he promises her softly, and his hand comes up to stroke a line from her temple to her chin.

There is a pause as they reach into each other's gazes and understand one another. It is a dense connection that contains a thousand meanings meant for no one but them. And then she smirks up at him, and steps in front of him. She is now a shield between him and all of their enemies, people they once called friends. "They can demote me. They can even throw me out, Kisuke. I will eventually come to you," she tells him. He splays his fingers over her back, the touch simultaneously comforting and encouraging.

There is a note of challenge in his voice. "Then here we go."

A blast of power surges behind her as the gate opens, and several Shinigami spring forward. Byakuya is first, but he is no match for her Flash Steps and hand-to-hand combat. It will only take a few moments for Kisuke to get through, she thinks. Yoruichi smiles as she delivers the finishing blow to the Kuchiki brat, and he is flung backward beneath the force of her skill.

"You all decided to cast him out," she taunts loudly, "so why not to the living world?"

She grins as the fury rises, and before anyone can get past her, the door is shut and sealed. Urahara is gone.

Yoruichi knows she is only greedy. It is avarice that makes her defend him…she wants him so badly and that is why she saves him, defying what she believes in.

Yet it suits her. It suits her perfectly.

**The End**


	4. Slacking

A/N: Rated Teen for Urahara and Yoruichi being Urhara and Yoruichi.

**Seven Deadly Sins: Sloth**

"Slacking"

By Nessie

Jinta has started asking about a black cat that wanders around the store and whether they can keep it or not. Urahara tells him good-naturedly that of course they can keep it…as long as they don't mind getting the crap beat out of them for trying to domesticate that particular cat.

After all, that had Yoruichi's original problem, hadn't it?

The outcast Shinigami sits on a hill on the outskirts of Karakura, doing nothing but watching the clouds turn purple from the impending sunset and smoking a pipe. He has discovered that if there is one thing he really enjoys about the material world, it is the use of tobacco. There is no good use for it and he knows that Tessai wishes "the owner" would stop smoking it, but Urahara can't help it. He loves this stuff.

"You're going to get cancer."

He slants eye over toward her and is at once disappointed. Though not even the fiery colors of the sinking sun can overpower the beauty of the Shihouin princess with her exotic skin and loose violet hair waving carelessly in the breeze, he might have preferred her to be naked. He knew for a fact that since she had begun using her feline form more and more often, Yoruichi had grown tired of the use of clothes at all, but it seemed she was not about to go in total public and parade herself around.

_Well, technically, there's no one here but us…_ Urahara kills the thought before it can be finished by his over-imaginative brain. He is pleased by what she's wearing, a thin summer dress of white cotton that lies over dark body as though it were no more than a towel. No cleavage is available to him, but he suspects that she is not wearing underwear. She really, really dislikes underwear now. "Too confining," she had once explained.

In response to her casually-made statement, Urahara smiles. "It's no worse than other things that have happened to me, I imagine."

She tilts her head. "I guess exile would be somewhat hard to beat."

His smile becomes a smirk. "Oh, I was talking about you." The blow he suffers to the back of his head does nothing but knock off his striped hat. He reaches for it, but Yoruichi catches his hand and holds it in hers.

"Leave it off. Your hair is nice in this light." And without another word, she lays down and puts her head on his lap.

Absently, he runs his fingers through her hair, briefly scratching a place behind her right ear. The slight rumble from her chest is the same response she might give in her animal form, but Urahara thinks that he prefers her womanly voice compared to that silly, scratchy male voice that escapes between whiskers.

Actually, he prefers _everything _about this form of hers. This is his friend, after all. Well…more than friend now. More like partner-in-crime.

Urahara doesn't realize that the word "lover" would describe her just as well. These two are not used to acknowledging their affection as being so adult.

"Shouldn't you be at your store?" she asks and the golden sky fades to navy blue. "Won't that big guy be wondering about you? And those kids you have there?"

"Oh, they'll wonder," he says, looking down into her golden eyes. Better than stars, he thinks, Yoruichi's eyes. "I took the day off. I couldn't do that in Soul Society."

She winds a hand around his neck and pulls him down to the grass with her. "Hm. Point," she murmurs lazily before kissing him deeply.

His heart thuds a little, and he can feel her smile against his lips because Yoruichi knows the effect that she has on him. He returns the kiss with equal fervor, but neither of them get too worked up. Lust takes energy, after all, and neither of them feels particularly energetic right now.

The kiss ends with a moist popping sound that amuses him, and he threads his whole hand through the thick fall of her hair. The purple of it looks black now with the shadows of the starry night, which had finished falling while his eyes were closed. Urahara leans back and pulls her on top of his chest.

"We're not being at all productive," he mentions, caring about as much as she does…which isn't much.

A throaty laugh bubbles up from her smooth throat. Urahara seals his lips to the side of her neck as she answers, "I know. No marks," she adds hastily before he can become too interested in the soft skin. "Who ever heard of a cat with a hicky?"

"I like to invent," he murmurs, but she smacks him lightly on the arm, and they both sit up. Yoruichi slumps forward, her cheek resting against his broad chest.

"Back to the world now," she says to him softly. "The real world, Kisuke."

This time, Urahara's smile is wistful. "It's not our world yet, is it?"

"Soon," Yoruichi assures him as she stands up. The white dress billows just above her knees, and she holds out a hand for him to take. Slipping her fingers through his, she hauls him up. "Very soon."

Like a breeze over the moon, she flash steps and is gone before Urahara can say goodnight. He is becoming used to that, her mysterious way of coming to him and leaving him again. It is only a matter of time before he stops wondering when she'll arrive altogether.

And he knows that when the time comes that they _can _consider this world as theirs, they will not be able to slack off like this just to spend a few minutes alone.


	5. Control

**A/N: **So I originally plotted this one differently, with far more angst, but I was worried that it would end up being too similar to my other UraYoru one-shot, "Quotidian" (which, for the interested, is also posted here on So in true Urahara and Yoruichi style…this will be silly and angsty.

And yet, I'm labeling this one as **Mature **because sometimes they just can't help themselves.

**Seven Deadly Sins: Wrath**

"Control"

By Nessie

It is raining, sharp needles of cold that soak his hat and make his fingers slippery on his cane. His sandals are even heavier and his hair is the color of sand at night, darkened by the water. He wants nothing more than to get home and get dry, but Urahara knows that the notion is currently impossible.

"How can a convenience store be out of milk?" Yoruichi asks grouchily, walking next to him on long, jean-covered legs. "Surely that will harm their business."

"Oh, I don't think so," murmurs Urahara with false cheerfulness. "They'll always have you to come buy some after forcing me to give you some money."

Yoruichi gave him a scandalized look. "I never force you!" The scandal melted away to downright mischief. "I just take it when you're not looking."

"From my back pocket," he adds, dragging his feet a bit. "Don't forget that."

She throws back her head and laughs; not at him, just at the thought of how easy it is to take advantage of him. Her long hair, even in its high ponytail lays straight and thick and wet against her back, sticking to the skin of her shoulders that is left bare by her plain black tank top.

Despite his irritation toward her, Urahara thinks she beautiful and he casually twines a bit of the dark purple locks around two of his fingers. "So where are we going, anyway?"

"To find milk!" Clearly exasperated with his obvious misunderstanding of her urgent need for dairy, Yoruichi swats his hand away. "It's late, but I know Karakura had open-at-night places."

"We'll have better luck finding a cow before one of those," he points out. "Are you picky about where it comes from?"

"Fine, Kisuke, _you _go home, and _I'll _get my own damn milk."

He sighs at her impatience and doesn't think about how he is almost out of that particular virtue himself. "No, I better stay. All you'll do is unleash hell on the next person you see if you don't get a fix soon. You're such a child sometimes, Yoruichi."

"Don't speak about milk junkies, Kisuke!" she admonishes him. "Maybe you'll be one yourself someday."

Urahara resists telling her that he is not at least partially a cat and stays silent as they walk along the sidewalk in search of a market center. The rain is still not doing anything for his mood, and it isn't doing anything for his libido either. Yoruichi's clothes are all but plastered to his skin, and he tries to ignore the way his mouth goes dry when she flicks her golden eyes toward him.

They don't talk for a bit, and it is five seconds later when Yoruichi takes a cursory glance of his own body that he knows he is found out. She gives a small, delicate sigh.

"Someone's having dirty thoughts…"

"You're not exactly snow-pure yourself," he shoots back defensively and pretends that she is not turning him on with that ridiculous grin of hers.

Yoruichi laughs at him. "I never said I was." Raising a hand, she takes a bunch of his gi and hauls him into one of the many alleys in the street.

The rain starts to fall harder as she pushes him against a brick wall, takes off his hat (she hates his hat), and fuses her lips to his with all the force of a thunderstorm. Urarahara's fingers dig into her hips and pulls her closer. Something like a growl rumbles from his throat, and he chest tingles when she laughs against his mouth.

When he's had enough of her shoving and decides to take control for himself, he pivots and has her in his place against the wall in a quarter of a second. He brings up one of her arms, his palm pressing against her wrist, and wet drops fall between their joined fingers as he kisses her. He drinks her in like the rain itself, like the milk she's craving.

Well, Urahara gets cravings of his own.

They paw and grope at each other in an almost angry way as memories flood through them; they hadn't needed to maintain so much control in Soul Society. There were far more darkened corners and empty places there than in the material world, and both Kisuke and Yoruichi had possessed more influence there. And what did they have in this place? An alley at night with the rain pouring down over them, and the slide of headlights as cars streamed by.

Sometimes Urahara hates himself for getting exiled, and sometimes Yoruichi hates herself for following him. But they never hate each other, and that counts for more than they realize.

They finally part in a whoosh of willpower and rushing breath, and their hands are still locked. Urahara still wants her, and Yoruichi always wants him, but now is not the time.

"Besides," she says breathily as though reading his mind, "I still need my milk."

They half-stumble out of the alley, dizzy from the past and each other, and he holds onto her as they rain sweeps over them.

He always holds on.

**The End**


	6. Advantage

**A/N: **Takes place just before Ichigo begins his training with Urahara. Spoiler warning! Rated **K+**.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach and am making no profit from this fan work.

**Seven Deadly Sins: Envy**

"Advantage"

By Nessie

Urahara suggests that she must be going easy on him, and she internally winces. The training session they had decided on having this morning was certainly useful, certainly strenuous, and certainly eye-opening. Yoruichi doesn't like that her arms burn as she jabs at him, and she despises the little smug look on his face as he almost-lazily dodges all of her assaults with a twist of his cane.

"You're out of practice," he says simply and pokes her in the belly in a teasing way. "It's to be expected after not fighting for a hundred years."

A hundred years isn't that long, she wants to say. She briefly considers forgoing technique in favor of lashing at him with teeth and nails, but Yoruichi knows that her childhood friend/lover/sparring partner is better than that. It has never been easy to surprise him. And she certainly couldn't succeed in any hiding tactics, not in this bare, desert-like terrain beneath his store.

Instead, Urahara surprises her, years ago by reaching Bankai in only three days; and now, by saying that they'll stop for today. She gets angry, feeling temper overtake her sensibility. "Why? I was just starting to get in shape!"

Beneath the brim of his floppy hat, she can see the mischievous glint of his eyes. "There's absolutely nothing wrong with _your _shape," he assures her.

The Shihouin ex-princess pretends that the heat that rises inside is from feeling the temperature through her sudden lack movement, and that it has nothing to do with him. Reaching up, she strips herself of the thick orange jacket she wears, revealing the plain black tank top beneath. She dislikes the unclean feeling from all of the sweating she's done in the last couple of hours and decides to wash as soon as she's in cat form.

Instead of going right away, Urahara chooses to take a seat on a long, mostly flat rock and stares up at the fake sky with a genuine smile. Glancing at her, he pats the spot beside him and invites her. Yoruichi sits and notices for the first time how authentic the false training desert is. It's a good replica of his previous work, but the one in Soul Society that they built together manages to outmatch this one. There aren't even any hot springs in this training ground.

Part of her wants to ask why he built this underground training field inferiorly to the first of its kind, why there are no hot springs, but Yoruichi knows that he will only reply with something stupid. Something like, _Because you never come and who wants to get naked by themselves?_

She doesn't realize that it was possible he didn't construct this one as well on purpose. The notion that it's not as good because she wasn't here with him to create it – like she had been before – doesn't even enter her mind.

"So you're really going to bring Ichigo down here and work with him?" She gives him a sideways, slightly distrustful glance. "You're not going to make him reach Bankai, are you?"

"Yoruichi!" He sounds shocked and offended, but only jokingly so. "I want to make him stronger, but I don't want to kill him. He doesn't even have proper use of Shikai yet, if he even ever gets it." He keeps his gaze trained on her, and Yoruichi can practically feel each individual eye roaming over her, seeing the tangles in her purple hair and the gleam to her darkened skin.

"Then I'll approach Yasutora-san and Inoue-san. I'll try with Ishida, but…" She shrugs, not sure how to explain. "He's a Quincy." She turns her head to give Urahara a direct, serious look. "Don't be incredibly hard on Ichigo. Be firm, but not mean. He's pretty torn up about Rukia."

"That will help him. And me, too. _I'm _torn up about Rukia. If they kill her before anyone can retrieve my Hogyouku, I'm going to be—" Urahara cuts off his rant without warning, and she wonders what he sees in her face to make him quiet himself. "He'll be tough, at any rate. That's good."

They sit in silence for a moment, watching the artificial clouds go by in the dry air. Yoruichi's hair had come loose during their sparring match and now whips around her face.

Yoruichi shakes her head after a moment. "You don't need to bottle up, Kisuke. I can tell you wish you could go." She looks down to see his hand resting on the rock and notices there are shallow holes dug in on the hard surface, created by all five of his fingers. He is certainly tense. "We won't fail."

"To what? Retrieve Rukia-chan or my Hogyouku?" There it is, jealousy flickering in his eyes like dying embers. He talks about his dangerous invention as though it is all that matters, but Yoruichi can tell that he longs to jump through the portal and brave the chances of death with her, with them.

But the gate would reject him, and then they'll never get through. In a slow, decisive movement, Yoruichi brushes the tips of her fingers over his cheek and kisses him soundly. The action is meant to be comforting, companionable even. But after a moment, Urahara pulls back and meets her eyes solemnly.

"Why did you ever leave?" he demanded softly. "And now you have to deal with this."

Yoruichi smiles, immediately wanting to avoid any tension concerning the past. "Oh, it's worth it. When else could I take advantage of this fantastic training space?"

Urahara stands up, and she follows him upstairs.

And when else, she thinks as they look for a cooler, more private area, could she have taken advantage with all this guiltless time with him?

**The End**


	7. Reasons

**A/N**: K+ this time. And this is the last of the Seven Deadly Sins series. I'm so happy that so many of you enjoyed this little collection. I appreciate all of your comments and words very greatly. Thank you for reading and hopefully you'll be back to reach whatever other Bleach/UraYoru fics I may churn out.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**Seven Deadly Sins: Pride**

"Reasons"

By Nessie

"I thought you wouldn't be seeing me for awhile."

Urahara stood in the doorway of his personal bedroom that he had sealed off from the pesky kids with various Shinigami tricks. Only he was allowed in this way. Or so he thought.

He was mightily surprised to enter the room and find a disheveled Shihouin Yoruichi lying on his bed beneath the clean white sheets. It made him forgot to turn on a light, and the moon shone in through an adjacent window. She had come and gone from the store like the stray cat many people believed her to be, but the last time she had left had been a month ago. She'd gone to see Tokyo and to inspect any moves Aizen might be making concerning the material world. The look on her face told Urahara she had come up with empty.

Yoruichi rolled to her side and lifted herself up on a tanned forearm. "It's _been _awhile," she snapped. "Tokyo was a wild goose chase. Nothing but rotten eggs."

"No Aizen," he muttered, stepping inside. "How did you get in?"

"Your window. I only got here a few minutes ago." She sent him a golden-eyed look that had weariness and agitation written all over it. "I'll leave if you want."

"It's November. It's getting cold," Urahara murmured, taking in the outline of her naked body beneath the sheets. "You've no clothes."

As he came to sit on the edge of the bed, she shrugged. "I can get fur."

Lowering himself to the mattress, he set a comforting hand on her bare shoulder. "I'm sorry that you…Yoruichi!" His black eyes narrowed dangerously. "You're burning up." He pulled his fingers away from the feverish skin near her neck only to press them to the even warmer flesh on her forehead.

"I'm not sick," protested Yoruichi at once. "It's a cold."

"It is not, it's a fever." Apparently annoyed, he went to a small chest of drawers and brought out a wide quilt which he threw over her unceremoniously. Then he went to another door opposite the one that led to the rest of the building. There was the sound of water running from a faucet, and he came back with a folded, damp cloth. When he touched it to her head, she hissed up at him.

"It's cold, Kisuke!"

"You need it," he told her firmly, catching her hands when she reached up to remove the discomforting object. "Keep it on there. I'll ask Tessai if we have any—"

"Don't. Just sit, won't you?"

Urahara only paused because he heard something in her voice; a slight, almost imperceptible quiver. He straightened from position of bending over her and seated himself once more on the bed. She couldn't stand to be taken care of, he knew, but he wasn't about to just let her go off and destroy herself either. "You never can accept that anyone might want to help you, can you?"

She was silent. Her eyes closed in the dark of the room. Urahara could see the way her long, black eyelashes glistened in the moonlight and had to fight not to swallow. "I helped you," she whispered at last. "I just don't like to think I need help."

He shook his head, drawing his gaze away from her. "You've already risked your life for me. Don't do it again by overexerting yourself. You can take it slow, you know."

She exhaled swiftly, which was a substitute for the laugh she couldn't quite muster. "Me? Slow? I think not."

_What an arrogant, prideful little…_ But a smile crossed Urahara's face. "Why do you allow me to worry for you, Yoruichi?"

Yoruichi's eyes opened and gleamed like spots of light in the dark room. "If I had to give a reason…" Her hand, gradually growing warmer than the icy temperature it had been minutes before, snuck out from under the blanket that covered her. She rested it over Urahara's paler fingers. "It's the same reason you let me worry about you, Kisuke."

He kicked off his shoes and let it hat drop to the floor. Lifting a side of the quilt, he slipped beneath it, fully dressed. Satisfied that he was providing a good amount of body heat, he pulled his longtime lover and even longer friend against his side.

Truth be told: they didn't really need reasons to be proud of each other.

**The End**


End file.
